Cities Are Now Canceling Flock, But There's a Catch

Our Take

Silicon Cowboy's reporting cuts right to the rot at the center of this so-called reform moment: swapping Flock Safety for Axon isn't a win for privacy, it's a rebrand. When a city council votes to "cancel Flock" and then quietly signs a check to the company that already sells them Tasers, body cams, and drones, they haven't ended mass surveillance — they've consolidated it under one defense contractor with even deeper pockets and a bigger appetite for "multi-modal" tracking.

This is exactly the shell game we've been warning about. The public outrage over Flock's data-sharing scandals and lack of oversight was never really about one brand's logo on a camera pole — it's about networks of plate readers stitching together everyone's daily movements without a warrant, without consent, and often without a city council even understanding what they approved. If Axon becomes the new backbone of that network, the same warrantless tracking continues, just with a different vendor cashing the invoices and an even broader menu of surveillance tools bundled in.

Don't let a vendor swap get mistaken for accountability. Check our camera map to see what's actually deployed near you, and if your city is debating a contract — Flock, Axon, or otherwise — head to take-action to learn how to push for real transparency before the next check gets signed.